Help me out on contest timing please

[NV Whino]

Does this work for timing? I've never paid any attention to the schedule.

Theme Poll Dec 25 through Dec 31
Submissions open Jan 1 close Jan 15 or 30 submissions
Prelims Jan 16 through 25
Finals Jan 26 through 31

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Am thinking you may want to shorten the prelims time frame

and start and end the final round a bit earlier, too.

Seems if the prelims are up too long, people lose interest. Woth that in mind, maybe prelims could be dates Jan 16-20 or 21, and finals Jan 20/21--26th or 27th

[NV Whino]

2. Okay

Thanks, I appreciate the help.

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Hope you get more replies

'cause i don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no contests! :hi:

[Eurobabe]

4. Maybe follow Bvar's schedule, she done a terrific job!!

Everything was tight. I think the submissions phase was about 4 days, or until we got 30 photos.

Where is Bvar these days anyhow? Out building fences??

[regnaD kciN]

5. I'd recommend ending the contest by the 26th at the latest...

...so that the winner can relax a bit and have enough time to get the new topic chosen before the new month rolls around, just as was done this month.

Back in the days when contests were held in the Lounge, I tried to run them so that there were three days each for the preliminaries and finals. Ideally, I held them with the prelims on Thursday-Saturday and the finals Sunday-Tuesday, so that each round had two weekdays and one weekend day. (It had been my experience that the Lounge drew a different clientele on "work" days -- when people were probably accessing from their office -- and weekends, so I thought it was fairest if both rounds got the same "mix" of voters.) Since the contests have been moved to GD, though, it looks like votes come in much faster, and you could probably even do an entire round in as few as two days and get a fair result. I also can't tell if there is the same weekday/weekend split there as there was in the Lounge.

[Ms. Toad]

6. A note unrelated to timing ....

Please remember to include the contest license in the submission thread! (It has gotten left out the last two months.)

As a bit of history - F. Gordon didn't don his flame suit quickly enough to avoid being fried the last time someone got cranky about copyrights when she didn't realize (and wasn't happy about) her photo going anywhere other than where she had originally posted it. Since F. Gordon's donating the smugmug site, and his time in maintaining it, it would be kind to make sure he doesn't have to make another mad dash for his flame suit in case we get another cranky contest entrant some day (not too unlikely, given all the new folks we've been attracting recently who don't necessarily know about the permanent galleries on photogroup.smugmug.com...)